La Petite Cherise
by Sakuraangel1327
Summary: Finally having my own little French café is what I have always wanted. It was just going to be me and my café, but then of course he had to walk into my café and make my heart beat faster with his red hair and aqua eyes. He was the image of badboy, but
1. Prologue

**Ok guys, here is another one of my stories that I wrote on paper (yes, back to the cavemen days) while I was on holidays when they was no internet or computer. A.k.a., no satellite. Hope you enjoy. The French in it btw is authentic. I am mostly fluent in French. Yr 11, and been doing it since yr 3.**

**Finally having my own little French café is what I have always wanted. It was just going to be me and my café. No men breaking my heart anymore, no friends betraying me, no anything… but then of course he had to walk into my café and make my heart beat faster with his aqua eyes and messy red hair. He was the exact image of badboy, but he was the best thing that ever happened to me.**

**Prologue**

For as long as I can remember I have always dreamed of owning my very own little French café, little maid uniforms and all. I am part French after all, on my mothers' side.

I have always had an interest in cooking so here I am at 21 years of age with my little café called 'La Petit Cherise' which is 'The Little Cherry' in French. I wanted it to be authentic. It's been open for only 3 months, but business is already booming. I am still going to university doing a course in medicine so the café is only open from 10am – 5pm. I do the night courses at Uni part time, so it all works out. I began university when I was 18 and am now into my 4th year of 5 years needed with then 3 years of internship, before I become a resident, so that should be fun.

So that's hoe it was going to be from then on; me and my little shop. No men to screw me over, no friends to betray me and no family to tell me how to live my life. I have to admit it gets a little hectic sometimes, but I love it the way it is. It's… comforting.

But of course I had to let my guard down and make a friend right? Of course, because this is me we are talking about. Stupid Sakura. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

I had noticed her always coming in to the shop at 11am for her morning coffee I guess and then again at 3pm for a cake and another coffee. She always looked around before eating it so I couldn't help myself. I went over and talked to her. She reminded me of myself I guess. Sneaking treats when you think no ones looking. That was 3 months ago on the grand opening of 'The Petit Cherise' that I noticed her, and then 2 weeks after that that I talked to her, and now I think I could call us best friends. I await every 11am and 3pm visit for my social session. We even go out on my one free day, Sunday, together to clubs and such.

I just hope she doesn't betray me like my _last_ best friend. Stole my 2 year boyfriend that bitch! But alas, she did something even worse… she introduced me to her brother. Fan-fucking-tastic.


	2. Chapitre Un: L'Introduction

**Chapitre**** Un: L'Introduction**

It was an ordinary Thursday afternoon. I had showered, dressed and driven to work on my motorbike just like any other day. The clock read 11:10pm and there was still no sign of Temari, which was worrying because Temari was always very prompt and if traffic was bad she always called so I wouldn't worry. 11:20pm rocked around and I was practically ripped out my hair with worry.

"Sakura-san please calm down," a quiet voice next to me had me glancing down at Hinata, the first person I had hired as a waitress at my café when she had practically begged me to let her work at such a 'cute shop' as she put it. Besides, she looks so adorable in the waitress dress.

"Yeah Sakura-chan cool it. She probably has a flat battery for her cell and the traffics bad," a glance to my other side had me looking at my second and last employee, Tenten. She has applied for a job when she had become addicted to my famous strawberry chocolate slice. Now she can eat as many as she wanted for half price. I mean, I couldn't just _give_ them to her, she goes through about 13 a day. I would be out of business for those slices, so half price is pretty good. She is thankful for it anyway.

"She'd find a way! Oh god! What if she's in a ditch somewhere? What if –" yes I know I am extremely over reactive, but seriously 11:40am? Something would have had to happen. A tinkle of the bell at the café door had me spinning around in anticipation, but my face fell as I saw Naruto enter the café with his friends, Neji and Shikamaru. Shikamaru was my good friend, as was the other 4, but he seemed to really _get_ me, you know? As for Naruto and Neji? Well, does Tenten and Hinata's face lighting up give it away? Yep, boyfriends are girlfriends are stalking me, man, seriously.

"Screw this, I need vodka!" Ahh, my good friend, Mr. Spirits; he's got me through a few hard times, he has. I can always count on him.

"No Sakura-chan, don't give in!" Naruto launched himself at me and rugby tackled me to the ground as I leapt for the sliding door that held my kitchen behind it where I cooked my fresh cakes and such. Also behind it was my life-saving hidden stash of 3 vodka bottles. The tall bottle kind.

While we wrestled on the ground I was too preoccupied to hear the door go again and didn't notice who had entered until a cry of 'Sakura!' brought me back to my senses. There stood the incredibly late woman in the flesh.

"You! You scared me half to death! I was ready to get out Mr. Spirits!" Yes, I probably looked like a crazy person, lying on the ground with my hair sticking up at god knows what angles and my own (longer and slightly different in every way to Hinata's and Tenten's) waitress dress crumpled to the ground, but most of the customers in the shop were regulars and knew what a weirdo I was so they barely even spared me a glance. Those that were new just looked around, saw no one was bothered by the scene, and went back to drinking their coffee.

As for Temari, she at least had the _decency_ to look sheepish until she pointed behind her and said, "Sorry Kura, I had to pick up my baby brother from the airport. And my phone ran out of battery and he wouldn't let me use his!" Well, what an ass!

I got up off the ground and looked for myself to see the ass who had made me worry so and nearly hit the floor again. He was gorrr-geous! Messy red hair, smouldering aqua eyes, dark rings around his eyes (eyeliner? tattoo's? birthmarks?), tall muscular body and a delicious smirk that I just wanted to –. Ahem, all in all he was a hunk. He looked around 22? Temari was 26 so that still made him younger, but holy shit I was in trouble. Damn you Temari for having such a hot brother! Damn! Damn! Damnnn!!!!


	3. Chapitre Deux: Le Bel Homme

**Chapitre Deux: Le Bel Homme**

I sat on the floor with my short pink hair sticking up at odd angles and my jaw to the ground as I stared… and stared and stared at the hot man in front of me. I heard people clearing their throats to get my attention and knew I probably looked a fool but seriously, he was **hot**. And I'm the one saying this, the one who swore off men.

It took a hand waving in front of my face to realise I was actually freaking him out, so instead I did what I would usually do in this situation and threw my shoe, which is an incredibly high platform black shoe, at the totally drool-worthy man in front of me.

"**YOU** WERE THE ONE WHO MADE ME WORRY SO!?!? **DIEEEE!!**" And soon my other shoe joined its twin in the air. I was slightly surprised when he managed to dodge both the shoes, making them hit the table behind him as he stared at me with wide, shocked eyes.

I quickly jumped off of the floor and walked right up to him to get in his face, which was hard considering he was over a head taller than me, and now that I wasn't wearing my massive pumps I was kinda screwed.

"Now lookie here mister, I don't care who you are, but you don't let innocent beautiful young women to think their friend is dea –"

"Gaara." His voice cut straight across mine, completely shocking me into silence for about 3 seconds before I jumped right back in there,

"Excuse m –"

"My name. It's Gaara," ok, this whole interrupting thing was _sooooo _not going down well with me. Even if his voice was incredibly husky and sexy and sent shivers down my spine, and practically made me salivate. That wasn't the point! The point was that he made me nearly get out Mr. Spirits.

"I don't care if your name is the BFG, a phone call would have been nice! A letter by pigeon! A smoke message from a plane! Morse code flashing lights! Anything!" I gripped him by the front of his t-shirt and stood on my tippy-toes to get right in his face. What I wasn't expecting was for him to lean down as well so that we almost kissed, our lips brushing one another's before we both pulled away. My face heated up like a tomato as I stumbled back, straight into Hinata who teetered on her heels and would have fallen if not for Naruto's hand on her back that held her steady.

An awkward silence filled the air as I struggled to get my blush under control, and I even saw a small blush on his face as he looked away and grunted, pretending it was nothing.

As soon as my dignity came back I threw myself onto Temari and sobbed my eyes out, broken words like 'Mr Spirits' and 'big bad wolf' came from my mouth as she just patted my back and pretended she had no idea who I was. I knew their game: pretend you don't know who the crazy person is. Hey I play that game too, whenever Temari has her caffeine fix she tends to go a little nuts, so that's when I edge away slowly acting as if I were a bystander as well, looking with wide eyes at the woman in the middle of the café yelling her ass off about periods and stupid lazy males. Well, these are the times when I'm not joining in with her as we curse the entire male population.

-

-

-

It was 20 minutes later that I was sitting down with a good cup of coco, my pumps back on my feet as I stuck them out beside me, my ankles crossed as I hung off the back of my chair lazily. My apron lying on the table as Hinata and Tenten pottered around serving customers, you know, waitress-y stuff. I sat with Temari and her brother just talking about what happened in the 8 or so hours since we last spoke, which, contrary to popular belief, is a lot actually like how the man across her street snuck into his house at 5 in the morning only to be thrown out again by his wife along with a whole bundle of suitcases and how I had heard the opera singing of my next door neighbour again at the crack of dawn (their own version of a rooster I am guessing). We were totally relaxed, completely forgetting about the gorgeous red-headed male specimen sitting to right… oh who am I kidding!? I have been looking at him out of the corner of my eye for the entire 20 minutes he's been here. His head in his hands as an expression of complete disbelief stayed on his face, only getting more pronounced as he continued listening to out conversations.

Until finally I turned to him and asked the questions I had absolutely dying to ask for the last 20 minutes, not that finding out if flying pink pigs existed isn't important, Temari.

"So how long are you staying in town Gaara-san?" His eyes turned to me, sending shivers up and down my spine which I masked by swivelling in my seat to place my feet under the table instead and leaning forward to prop myself onto the white marble table.

"It's just Gaara, and as of right now, indefinitely." His deep voice caressed me like velvet.

"Then just call me Sakura," I smiled at him, unaware of his own heart racing as he looked into my eyes before looking away with a blush.

Evil laughter from in front of me had both of us turning to face Temari who had her hands in the air and her face to the ceiling cackling. Well, until she noticed us watching her which is when she lowered her head confused and asked what had to be the stupidest and funniest question on earth if not for the fact I was embarrassed to be her friend,

"Was I doing that out loud?" Oh dear Temari. With synchronised movements both Gaara and I hit ourselves in the head before shaking our heads and groaning. Did we really know this girl?

We looked at each before I started to laugh 'till my sides hurt, holding onto the table for support as he just smirked, which I guess was his equivalent to my hysterical laughing.

It was about 10 minutes later before it was due for Temari to leave for work, so as always, I walked her to the door, her brother trailing behind me. As I gave her a hug and stepped back to say goodbye to the red haired god, I heard a single phrase whispered to me before he walked out the door, but that's all it took for me to feel lightheaded and grab the doorway with support at how husky and just how… kind it was.

"_Sorry for making you worry Sa-ku-ra."_ And with that I watched as they both got into Temari's purple convertible and drove off into the distance.

With a quirk of my lip I wondered if I'd see a lot more of that guy. The thing that scared me was that I didn't know whether I did or not.

**Hmmm, I don't like it. I just wanted to update. I dunno, is it any good? I have school a lot, its only cause it's a public holiday tomorrow that I'm taking the day off from studying to update each of my story (or write about half a chapter to get it going). Enjoy. XXX**


	4. Chapitre Trois: Le Terrible Incident

**Voila! Another chapter done and dusted. Inspiration hit, for how long no one knows. I wrote two new one-shots, so go check those out too. But enough of my gibber-gabbing, enjoy!**

**Chapitre Trois: Le Terrible Incident**

Friday passed pretty much the same as it always did, with the added bonus of Temari's brothers company. Gaara came with sister each time as they worked in the same building, which I just found out. It was a family business and Gaara had been working away at another site, as was their0 other brother, but the office in Japan was their main branch which is why Gaara returned to lead the company from here instead. We, meaning Temari and I chatted and gossiped as we sipped away at out coffees and munched on my new lemon and mango cupcakes. Then it was time for her to leave and it was time for the lunchbreak workers to rush in for their croissants and coffee's.

It was practised and repetitive to some people but to me it was a perfect life. No surprised and a quiet life filled with the love of people you cared about. What could be better?

But my quiet perfect life was disrupted when two men in suits came barging into my café at mid-afternoon. They had suitcases and very expensive looking shoes. Those two things added together equalled the worst kind of trouble; lawyers.

Putting down the coffee jug in my hand and pulling off my apron with other I made my way over to them, ignoring the curious glances from my friends and the other customers in my shop.

"Can I help you?" I asked, giving them my no-nonsense tone. The last thing I wanted to do was _help_ these people, maybe kick them out the door, sure, but help them? I think not.

"We are looking for the owner of this establishment." The tall one looked his hook nose down at me, making me want to break it off, but instead I smiled and said,

"You're looking at her." The short one looked me up and down, making me want to shiver, but instead I stood tall in my 3 inch pumps and waited for the shoe to drop.

"This is an official eviction notice. You have two weeks to evacuate the premises after which you will be escorted off the premises and convicted of interference with a government matter." My jaw dropped and my legs grew unsteady as the tall one handed me a large envelope before they both tipped their hats at me and walked out the door.

The loud bang of the door hitting the frame had me coming back to reality as I slowly looked down at the yellow envelope in my hand, unaware of the 20 or so sets of eyes focused on my face for my reaction having heard everything those two men said.

Slowly, as if this were all a dream, I slit open the envelope, letting it flutter to the ground as I gripped what was inside it in white straining hands. There written across the top in red was the word; EVICTION.

I covered my mouth as I began to hyperventilate. This couldn't be happening to me. My café was perfect, and had been for months. It was a good business, the money was paying my University bills. Not to mention the added bonus of doing what I loved to do; making people smile with the taste of homemade pastries. No one complained and everyone benefited. How could God do this to me? I was the perfect citizen, I paid my dues and helped others at every chance I could. I donated money annually to various charities and visited the gravesites of my parents once a month. What did I do to deserve this injustice?

I didn't notice I was shaking until someone came up behind me and placed their hands on mine. I looked up with tear-filled eyes and saw that it was Naruto at my side. He whispered comforting words to me as he walked me passed everyone and into the kitchen where he sat me down and took the paper from my hands.

While he read it for himself I pulled myself out of my semi-comatose state long enough to get up and grab one of the vodka bottles I kept for times just like this and a shot glass from the same cupboard.

I poured myself shot after shot and soon Naruto joined me, shaking his head as he tried to decide what to say to me. In the end we just sat side by side sharing my grief in a bottle of numbness. I think Hinata came in to check up on me, but Naruto waved her away, asking her to take care of thing out there while I pulled myself together. I don't know why he told her that, how was I meant to pull myself together when my entire life was falling apart in front of me.

We must have been sitting there for hours because the next thing I knew, the double doors connecting the kitchen to the café floor were pushed open with a bang.

"Where is she!" A familiar shriek coupled with four blonde piggy tails had me slumping even further into my seat, pouring myself the umpteenth glass of spirits.

"Haruno Sakura, you have been brought up better than that! Get your self-pitying ass off that chair and fight for your café!" That plus her taking the practically empty bottle of vodka away from me hit my last nerve.

"You have no right to speak to me like that Temari! This is my HOME! They are taking away my HOME. Can you spell that? Do you know what that means? H-O-M-E! This is my dream. So excuse me if I want to consume a few drinks before I begin to pack my bags!" After my little rant was over I snatched the bottle back from Temari and sculled the last few swallows. If there was anything I was totally epic at it was being able to hold my drinks.

"So that's it? You're just going to give up? Just like that?" Temari's voice was full of disbelief, which was understandable, but still pissed me off nonetheless.

"It has no loophole. I checked. I read it multiple times Temari, they are going to bulldoze my beautiful café so they can build an apartment building. Apparently they have the right to throw people on the streets as long as they give them 'notice'". I made quotation marks in the air as I got up, slightly unsteady on my feet, and picked up another bottle of vodka from the cupboard. I had barely made it back to my seat when the bottle was taken from me and a strong hand pushed me gently into my seat.

"Let me see it." A deep baritone spoke from above me as the documents were given to him, probably by Naruto.

"And what makes you think _you _will be able to find something when I couldn't, Mr Bigshot," my words slightly slurred together as I blinked up at him with a drunken gaze.

"I own a lawfirm, whilst you Ms Haruno, are training to be a doctor. Leave it with me and I'll be able to find you a loophole. For now, you should probably sleep off your drunken stupor." And with that he simply took the document and walked out, without even a simple goodbye. Well, that didn't stand with me, and in my drunken state I did something I wouldn't normally d – Oh, who am I kidding, I would have done that even if I was sober.

"Now you listen here, tall dark and handsome, I don't need your pity or your sympathy. And I most definitely don't need your help. So you give me back those documents and go on your merry way back to wherever the hell you came from!" I was panting by the end as I stood in the middle of my café, everyone's eyes trained on me and the mysterious redhead.

"I am giving you neither my sympathy nor my pity, but my help _is_ something you need. Now turn around and go sleep of the drink, boozy." His matter-of-fact tone brought me to a halt before steam began to erupt from my ears.

"How dare you! You – you – you pigheaded Neanderthal! I am no helpless damsel in need of rescue. I have handled myself for years! BY MYSELF. And I will handle this! Give them back!" As I made a grab for them, I was clumsy, allowing Gaara to easily push me away, but instead of pushing he pulled me closer, pressing us flush to flush.

"Do you want to lose your home?" One single sentence was all it took for the waterworks to start and for my anger to subside.

"No..." I trailed off, suddenly ashamed of my childish antics. Here he was, offering to help me probono and I act like spoilt brat.

"Then do I have your permission to find you a loophole?" He said it almost mockingly as if he didn't give a damn about my answer cause it was going to do it anyway, but I didn't bite back. I just stood there, slumped against him.

"Why? Why are you doing this?" It was the answer that needed to be asked all along. I had only known him for a day, and in that only a few hours. Why would he go out of his way to help me, when he obviously had more important things to do, like running a lawfirm.

I didn't get my answer instead I felt a hand in my hair tilting my head back until I felt a pair of lips slant against mine and give me the hottest and most thorough kiss I had ever experienced in my life. It was over in moments, but felt like forever before he pulled away and allowed me to breathe.

My eyes opened to find me already walking away from me. I stood there in shocked confusion as he turned when he made it to the door and spoke over his shoulder at me before leaving, "I find you fascinating." And then he was gone. Just like that.


End file.
